A rare example of contemporary Chinese crime fiction, this harrowing but precise tale carries echoes of Dostoyevsky and offers often disturbing insights into what makes Chinese society tick. A disaffected high school student plans a perfect murder. He lures a beautiful young violin player to his home and, in cold blood, strangles her before briefly going on the run. Uneasy with his situation, he soon engineers matters so he is caught by the authorities and thereafter meticulously, and without the slightest shred of remorse, plots to fight the state, psychologists assigned to his case, family and the law to escape the inevitable death penalty. A brutal X-ray of the pressures inherent in Chinese society and the despair that controls it, this is also a compelling read and an eye-opener into a world which is not as unfamiliar as we first think and displays an ironic resonance with our own reality. Challenging but rewarding. ~ Maxim Jakubowski
A chilling literary thriller about a motiveless murder in provincial China 'One of the most important voices to emerge from the People's Republic in years' Daily Express On a normal day in provincial China, a teenager goes about his regular business, but he’s also planning the brutal murder of his only friend. He lures her over, strangles her, stuffs her body into the washing machine and flees town, whereupon a perilous game of cat-and-mouse begins. A shocking investigation into the despair that traps the rural poor as well as a technically brilliant excursion into the claustrophobic realm of classic horror and suspense, A Perfect Crime is a thrilling and stylish novel about a motiveless murder that echoes Kafka’s absurdism, Camus’ nihilism and Dostoyevsky’s depravity. With exceptional tonal control, A Yi steadily reveals the psychological backstory that enables us to make sense of the story’s dramatic violence and provides chillingly apt insights into a country on the cusp of enormous social, political and economic change.
